UK High Court split over Twitter airport bomb joke

New hearing ordered to discuss fate of Paul Chambers after judges disagree

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A man who was convicted of posting a tasteless joke on Twitter about blowing up a UK airport is to have his case heard again.

According to report today from New Statesman legal scribe David Allen Green – who is also representing Paul Chambers in the appeal – two judges in the Divisional Court of the High Court had failed agree to a decision about the so-called "Twitter Joke Trial".

The case has been adjourned and will now be heard by three judges. However, no date has yet been set for that deliberation.

In February this year, Chambers appealed against his conviction at Doncaster Magistrates' Court for sending "menacing" communication via Twitter in a hearing with Lord Justice Gross and Mr Justice Irwin.

The 27-year-old trainee accountant, who lost his job following the conviction, had taken to the micro-blogging site to joke about Doncaster's Robin Hood Airport by threatening to blow it "sky high".

Allen Green noted: "A split divisional court is exceptional, and it appears that this may be only the second time it has happened this century."

Chambers said via his Twitter account: "Tbf [To be frank], I was expecting defeat and it's not that. But the hardest thing has been the waiting and now we have to wait some more." ®